Page 56 of Lost Kingdom

“No.” I follow the sound of my phone and find it amongst my purse. My dress. A single, discarded heel. Then sweeping it up, I spy Minka’s name flashing on the screen. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” He folds his arms behind his head and seems to have absolutely no trouble at all posing completely naked. One of us is insecure. And the other is Timothy Malone. “Aubree?”

“It’s Minka.”

His eyes narrow to slits. “Work, or big sister ass kicking?”

“Don’t know.” Swiping to answer before the call rings out, I bring the device to my ear. “Could be either. Hello?”

“Well, you lived,” she grumbles, straight to the ass kicking, but breathing out a sigh of relief at the same time. “I have sources that say you left with Tim last night, but neither of you are at the bar, and those same sources say you’re not at your apartment either. So…?”

“We’re still at the hotel.” I can’t stand on full display for a second longer, not without crossing my legs and covering my nether regions with a splayed hand. So I walk back to the bed and crawl onto the mattress. I’d rather he hold me than study me. “Tim got one of the fancy rooms at the top.”

“And you stayed there with him?”

I rest on my belly and study the tattoos marking his ribs. A lot of it is messy. Unruly lines, and smudged detail. It seems he cared more about covering the scars than he did about what those coverings would look like. “Yes. I slept here.”

“And your…” She clears her throat. “Purity?”

Fire burns in my cheeks. So I plaster my face to the bed and snicker. “Uh…”

“Message received,” she sighs. “Jesus. Okay. Are you…um… are you okay?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Does he know?”

“That I’m here?” I look up again and find his eyes burning down into mine. “Yeah. He’s looking at me.”

“No. Does he know what he took? I know most women would share that information with their lover, but you’re you, Aubree Emeri. And you’re never what I consider first as an example of normal.”

“You’re mean. And no. I didn’t say.”

She grunts, dropping her head back until I hear a muffled thump. I picture her in my mind, lying in bed similar to how Tim is posed. “You’re a pain, you know that?”

“I hardly see how it’s your business, Boss. Were you calling for work? Or just to catch the gossip?”

“Gossip,” Archer answers, because of course, he’s right there, listening in and as obsessed with her as Tim is with me. “She worries, Doctor Emeri. Blink twice if you need to be saved from my brother.”

“I’m not blinking. But I am hanging up.”

“Wait!” Minka snaps that single word out so loud, even Tim hears it, his brow popping high on his forehead and his lips firming. “Are you gonna tell him?” she asks quietly. “He probably deserves to know, don’t you think?”

“Not necessarily. Are we done?”

“Was it good?” She giggles like a schoolgirl, growing louder so I have to assume Archer touches her. “On a scale of Felix to Micah to Archer, where do you think he slots in?”

“Goodbye.” I drag the phone from my ear and crush my thumb to the red icon on the screen. Then I toss the device so it lands somewhere at the bottom of the bed with a muffled thump. “She wants me to compare you to your brothers.”

“How could you?” He wraps his hand around the side of my neck and drags me closer until my breasts rest on his chest. “You haven’t slept with my brothers. And you never will. Comparison is impossible.”

“That’s what I said.”Well, sort of. “She’s annoying.”

“She sure fuckin’ is.” Rolling me to my back, he towers over me and peppers a gentle kiss to my cheek. My lips. My chin. And all the while, his free hand walks along my hip and down to tap my clit before my brain has a chance to catch up. I gasp, loud and breathy and so friggin’ wanting, I embarrass myself. But when he slips his fingers in, the pleasure I felt earlier turns to a hiss.

He stops. His entire body freezes. Then his eyes scan my lower half before coming up to search mine. “Are you sore?”

“A little.” My cheeks flame, but when I try to turn my face, he nudges me back with the tip of his nose. “It’s just a little sensitive.”

---